Liberté, égalité, fraternité, French for "liberty, equality, fraternity", is the national motto of France and the Republic of Haiti. It originated during the French Revolution, and became official in France at the end of the 19th century. The phrase originated with Maximilien Robespierre, (who was, ironically, a prime instigator of the Terror, a bloodbath which claimed thousands of lives), in a speech delivered on 5 December 1790. From the time of Robespierre’s execution, the term Fraternity was discarded and under Napoleon I, the slogan fell into disuse. The Emperor preferred the use of another motto: “Liberty, Public Order” (in French: Liberté, Ordre Public). During the constitutional monarchy of Louis-Philippe, the motto became: “Order and Liberty” (in French: Ordre et Liberté). The original motto ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’ was again adopted during the 1848 February Revolution but was made official under the Third Republic (1871-1940). (Read more at http://frenchmoments.eu/national-motto-of-france/)

Incidentally, the French Revolution began as a revolt against the rule of King Louis XVI, husband of Marie Antoinette, who famously if apocryphally said, in response to a report on the lack of bread, the staple diet of the poor in Paris, "Let them eat cake." Both king and queen were beheaded by the guillotine. These incidents, especially the beheadings, are the core or the subject matter of many Hollywood and European films, not to mention Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities, and the romances of the Scarlet Pimpernal, among others. The visualisations by films brought the horror of the slaughter home to many who had known the Revolution only as a few paragraphs in their history books.

The Statue of Liberty was designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and built by Gustave Eiffel. Dedicated on October 28, 1886, it was a gift to the United States from the people of France. The statue is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess, who bears a torch and a tablet evoking the law, upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet.

Thursday, October 27, 2016

I had never seen anyone with a permanent smirk, until I found it on this person, forever, everywhere that he is within my view, through various forms of visual media.

Whether or not it is part of a set of facial muscles that were made that way congenitally, or cultivated especially to denote total derision and contempt for the opponent, through which it can extend to the concerned audience in the world, I am curious to know. I am so amazed at its ability to unnerve, that I had to share my curiosity with others. Also, is it real, or a mask worn for public consumption.

If anyone doubts, disagrees, or is perplexed by my incomprehension, please indicate it to me, and educate me about this anatomical phenomenon of one upmanship.

I thank all those who thought of and remembered me, in whichever way recognising me and thus acknowledging me, humbling me with gratitude.

Jyoti Gandhi

Subhash Barot

Guddi Vijay Rao

Bhamini Shankar

Sonya Haritha

Vinod Gandhi

Asma Hakkim

Sk shanmuganathan

Nirav Gandhi

Sonal Ganatra

Reena Patel

Minu Sanghavi

Pem Dem

Rita Lal

Vivekanandan Vivi

Nimish Tolia

Ashoka Auro

Arvind Rathnam

Pradeep J Soni

Sachin Gandhi

Dr.Taralika Trivedi

Pixy Mukherjee

Sharmila Mehta

Nam Prasad Satsangi

Arul Damodaran

Kirit Sanghvi

Kiran Bhatt

Vikash Srivastav

Shyla Shanker

Siva Kumar

Payal Satish

Pradeep Bokaria

Anoop Rajan

Piyush Jain

Pravin Gandhi

Ajit Chitturi

Purvi Goradia

JS Sathishkumar

Ramanidharan Ramaswamy

Dananjay S Bhatt and Mamta

Dinesh Kumar Bhattarai

Sri Rajesh

Viji Srikanthan

Subhasis Bose

Utkarsh Majmudar

Devyani Gandhi

Sujaya Menon

Raj Kumar

Sohail Sarooshi

Ramesh Raman

Sudha Shivkumar

Nimish Tolia

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy

Ranjan Mistry Pratap

Sangeeta Thapa

Pradip Chakraborty

Rajani Sheth

Fathima Sharafath

Premalatha Seshadri

Kanan Mehta

Madhavan Nair

Vivek Sial

Hemant Manek

Shashibhai Bhatt

Surekha Kothari

Gayatri Sundarakandan

Kashmira Soni

Mukesh Soni

Shahzenan Parpia

Anant Maringanti

Siddharth Hande

Kavitha Prasad

and very good friends from

The Photographic Society of Madras

Classic Photos

The Chennai Photography Learners Club

Single Frame Photography

the staffs of Taj and ITC groups of hotels

friends from foreign consulates and cultural centers,

IITs and premier colleges where I have been honored with invitations to judge debates or to lecture on subjects from films, philosophy, space, and metaphysicsFraternity at Film Censor Boards, and Board to Select Films for International Film Festivals

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Taken on a boat ride in one of the lakes of the Adirondacks, upstate New York. As I took the picture I wanted one of the boys to turn, so I made some noise with my shoe. This boy did turn to look, and I clicked.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

The following is my response to a comment / sermon on my blog post, Failure of Good Over Evil (see below):

Comment: Like space mind is unfathomable so to rationalize every action is not possible .Traditions have evolved over the millennim's experiences and followed by millions unquestionably whether it is right or wrong similarly if one's action bring smile on some ones face that is good conversely is evil.QED (sic)

Response: Mind, generally, in the context of human beings, means separately or collectively, heart and brain, and excludes other visceral parts and anatomical, physiological functions within the composite that we call the human body. Since the human mind, that is the brain and heart combo again, is fathomable, you must be singularly gifted or cursed with a mind which is unfathomable and therefore causes you to be deprived of the ability to ‘rationalise its every action', thus bestowing upon you a special ability to correspond to clear ecstasy or maniacal depression depending on the designated time and day of the year, not only in every part of the world that you inhabit, but with universal sameness.

The point that you missed in what I was stating here (http://rameshgandhi.blogspot.in/2016/10/failure-of-good-over-evil.html) was that mankind, while not being devoid of ability for great cheer or depth of depression, cannot manipulate that ability according to the dictates of the annual calendar, on designated days for the purpose of joy and downright misery. The 'designation' of days for cheer and days for mourning lose their meaning because they lose the spontaneity which is essential for it to be congruent with an individual's state of mind at a particular moment of a particular day or night, in a particular place on earth.

I hope this reaches you on a 'designated' day for great joy and cheer so that it does not cause you to be melancholy and does not deprive you of the day's rituals of autonomous joys. Quod Erat Demonstratum.

If the above makes sense to you, please accept my bow of gratitude. If it does not, just await another designated day for joy and happiness and await the ecstasy that will fill your life, at least during the period of that special day or night or both.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Man, from time immemorial, has always in a continued, uninterrupted progression of his existence, tried to vanquish evil and usher in goodness. Thousands, perhaps millions of different kinds of rituals, methods, invocations, have evolved. Some survive, some were modified, some could not be understood; but no matter what the root was, mankind has moved incrementally towards evil, falsehood, depradations, and criminality.

Can one dare to take a look at humanity, anywhere, everywhere, where good prevails, and bad, or evil, has not only not decreased, but has found, thanks to the fundamental deceit among men of all hues around the globe, newer, crueller, incredibly more ingenious methods for new areas of growth, which he practices without compunction, contrition, inhibition, or most of the time, even second thoughts.

What is then put on display by him, and with what expectation that one day or one week, even one moment of his lifetime, would witness the result of the goodness he does. Does he, can he, actually believe that he has done something good? If not, does he feel that beating drums, one day here, on another somewhere else, naming it this or that in a devout fashion, would compensate for all the evil that pervades throughout and only through human beings. Can he even slightly be forgiven, if such forgiving power, authority, is vested in something he believes to be god or goddess, by whichever name and in whichever language he addresses them?

I wonder, in full lamentation, even at the risk of being ostracized. Is this act of immersion an act equal to abhorrent, fanatical rejection of the deity, or some perverse way of honoring it.

Should I expect 'divine' retribution for what may be considered blasphemy, or be rewarded for what can be considered the truth that is available for everyone to see, today, yesterday, and throughout the history of mankind.

Sunday, October 09, 2016

--------------
Bhashwati wrote:
[the] photo is like a rich sweet that has many layers of goodness and sweetness. The flower (i think) in your photo is like pat of a bridal veil or like the frills in a white frock i used to have in childhood.

Thursday, October 06, 2016

Meditation: is it getting into a trance, or concentrating on an activity, like reading, painting, or processing accumulated experiences. Is it transcendental, or simply terrestrial; practical, or floating in clouds.Or, as an over-simplification, at least in relation to the picture above, is it composing, fiddling with technicalities, and then just clicking a camera.Having stated all this, now I had better meditate on whether the picture is meritorious, or deserving of anyone's attention. Any help would be helpful.-----------------------------Anonymous wrote:

i dont know why you chose that title but what i noticed was
that each of the three natural light sources, one of them not in the frame lead
to areas of darkness rather than the more expected darkness unto light
progression. as if light is preparing to meditate. And here the kadappa stones
bestow such a spartan look. Same stones exude luxury in the pool side study.
Kamaal hai. And the unsteady edges of the stone so well compliment the precise
vertical lines of the door frames, the wall and the tiled wall pattern in the
foreground.

And the human silhouette... its like you dropped it in to a
pool of light but ensured that not a beam of light would hinder its
meditation.